June 8, 2006
Afghans Raise Toll of Dead From May Riots in Kabul to 17
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 7 -- Nine days after the worst riots here in the Afghan capital in years, officials raised the death toll to 17 from 12 on Wednesday, and said that 140 people remained in detention, accused of involvement in the rioting.
At a rare news conference, the chief of the National Security Directorate, Amrullah Saleh, said that the riots on May 29 were a spontaneous reaction to a traffic accident caused by an American military truck, and that there was no proof of any political motivation or planning behind the violence, though some of those detained belonged to criminal gangs or political groups.
"We cannot reject the possibility of anything yet," Mr. Saleh said. "There were some instigators, people from small bands or groups in Kabul, but so far we have not reached the final conclusion to be able to say a certain political organization was orchestrating the riot."
A Ministry of Interior official, Abdul Jabar Sabit, seemed to contradict Mr. Saleh's assessment. In a separate news briefing, he said the riots appeared to have been organized.
"We think it was very coordinated, and it spread all over the city very quickly," Mr. Sabit said. People carried banners that bore political slogans, and some men were arrested with leaflets encouraging people to protest on the day of the riots, he said.
He defended the performance of the police that day, saying that rather than firing on the crowd, as some have reported, the police in some cases abandoned their posts, which rioters then ignited.
Witnesses also contended that American soldiers had fired into the crowd. The United States military has said it is investigating and cooperating with the Afghan investigation.
Since the riots, about 250 people have been detained, 140 of whom remain in detention, Mr. Saleh said. Of those, 52 have confessed to attacking public buildings and 10 of them are accused of instigating the violence, he said.
Mr. Saleh gave as an example one man who he said was seen setting fire to vehicles in the parking lot of the commercial television channel Ariana TV in southwest Kabul. The man then moved toward the Parliament building and was arrested there, accused of inciting people to violence.
Mr. Saleh said the man was believed to belong to a criminal gang.
"He has given some more names of people who were cooperating with him, who had the same idea, and who had gathered because of the same action," Mr. Saleh said. "Whether these people were receiving commands from any political group or criminal group has not come out yet from the investigation yet, and it needs time."
Abdul Wahab Khetab, director of the Ministry of Interior's criminal department, said the death toll after the car crash and subsequent rioting was 17 and included a policeman.
Mr. Khetab said that about 194 people had been treated in Kabul hospitals for injuries received that day, but that only 13 remained hospitalized a week later.
Asked about reports of double or triple the official number of deaths that day, Mr. Saleh acknowledged that the death toll could be higher, saying the official count listed only those registered in hospitals.
"We are an Islamic country, and based on our traditions, it is not obligatory to first take dead bodies to the hospitals to register them before burying them," he said.
Sultan M. Munadi contributed reporting for this article.